Commercially available snowboard boot bindings typically include a baseplate having a floor for receiving the snowboard boot and a heel hoop which surrounds the lower leg of the rider. A snowboard binding is mounted in a direction essentially across the edges of the board so, unlike in skiing where the ski binding is mounted in a tip to tail direction, a rider's toes point towards one edge of the board (“toe side edge”) while her heels are positioned relative to the other edge of the board (“heel side edge”). A board is tipped on either the toe side edge or the heel side edge to steer the board when carving a turn. Because a rider's heels may overhang the heel side of the board, the binding may drag in the snow when the board is tipped onto its heel side edge (“heel drag”), slowing the speed of the rider and potentially impairing the rider's control of her board. To specifically alleviate heel drag, many bindings are configured with a cut-out or opening at the rear end of the baseplate floor at the transition to the heel hoop. Truncation of the floor at the heel end of the binding provides additional clearance between the bottom of the snowboard boot and the snow surface, allowing a board to be ridden at a greater heel side angle before contact is made between the binding/boot and the snow and, consequently, decreasing the occurrence of heel drag. An opening also is provided below the heel hoop which is adapted to receive a heel end of the snowboard boot, allowing the rider's leg to snugly fit in the binding and readily contact the heel hoop and a highback that may be provided at the rear of the binding which projects upwardly and acts as a lever against which a rider may flex her legs to put a board on heel side edge.
Snow may enter the binding through the opening below the heel hoop and through the opening in the baseplate floor frontward of the heel hoop, and such snow may accumulate on the floor of the binding potentially affecting the ability to properly seat a boot in the binding. This inconvenience is compounded in snowboarding where a rider must reengage her front foot to the front binding each time she exits a chairlift, and both feet to the front and rear bindings after she rides a gondola up the mountain. Typically, a rider digs the heel side edge of her board into the snow when positioning her feet in the binding and securing the boot engagement straps or step-in binding engagement mechanisms, causing snow to build-up on at least the heel side of the baseplate floor. It is common, then, for a rider to have to brush off her baseplate before engaging her boot in a binding.